lucy stone :: essays papers

lucy stone In the history of women’s rights, and their leaders, few can compare with the determination and success of Lucy Stone. While many remember Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony for being the most active fighters for women’s rights, perhaps Stone is even more important. The major goal for women in this time period was gaining women’s suffrage. That is what many remember or associate with the convention at Seneca Falls. However, Stone was not only trying to gain women’s suffrage, but also to give women other rights that they did not have at this time. In the mid-1800’s, women were almost on the same social level as slaves. The slave owners were husbands. All of the women’s earnings went to men, they could not legally write a will unless all of her belongings went to her husband. The husband was the sole owner of the children, and could do anything he wanted with them. There was a case where a man gave away a child to a complete stranger before the baby was even born. The husband could even legally beat his wife. This was the background for Stone’s and other women’s rights leaders’ anger. Stone grew up watching her mother beg her father for money. With this in her background, Stone began her crusade for Women and Slave’s rights. A college education is something that women take for granted today, but in the 1800’s it was an extremely rare thing to see a woman in college. During the mid 1800’s, schools like Oberlin and Elmira College began to accept women. Stone’s father did a wonderful thing (by 19th century standards) in loaning her the money to pay for her college education. Stone was the first woman to get a college education in Massachusetts, graduating from Oberlin College in 1843. Her first major protest was at the time of her graduation. Stone was asked to write a commencement speech for her class. But she refused, because someone else would have had to read her speech. Women were not allowed, even at Oberlin, to give a public address. She started out as a guest lecturer speaking out against slavery. Stone was a known as a major abolitionist in the pre-civil war period. At this time, the other Women’s rights leaders wondered if her abolition speaking would take away from their cause.